Luna Lovegood and the big blue sofa
by galleena
Summary: Set post Hogwarts Luna Lovegood and Colin Creevey are getting on with their respective lives until they have an unexpected run in in a shop window...
1. The Big Blue Sofa

AN: Set 5 or 6 years after the seventh Harry Potter book which, unsurprisingly, I didn't/ will not write. Luna and Collin and all other recognisable characters belong to JK Rowling's imagination. I just play with the action figures…

**Luna Lovegood and the Big Blue Sofa**

The warm soft material of the blue sofa felt nice to touch as Luna stroked it for a while in contemplation. Quite recently she had bought an apartment over her shop near Diagon Ally but hadn't been able to find wizard furniture to suit the modern look of the flat. So here she was rubbing the fleecy arm of a plush three-seater wondering if the luxury it promised was worth the price.

She touched the arm, she felt the leg then she sat on the middle cushion and laughed softly to herself as the cushion sank with a puff of air. But still, she wasn't sure if this was _the_ chair. Slipping her feet out of her clogs she tucked her legs up under her bum and sat back. The sofa was simply divine. Pushing her legs away lengthways she stretched out and imagined herself to be lying on the velvety underbelly of a giant snorkle beast…

* * *

click

click

click

Colin Creevey flashed his camera several times in quick succession. Usually he worked as a freelance photographer but today the Quibbler had commissioned him to follow Quidditch player Viktor Krum and his new girlfriend around Diagon Ally. Colin had hoped that he'd catch them doing something embarrassing (or even better; criminal) but so far he had been disappointed with a mere ten shots of them kissing. When the couple headed back towards the leaky cauldron he decided to call it a day and head home.

Moving swiftly through the Muggle streets with hisface fixed firmly ahead he was surprised to see a mass of people outside the rather expensive furniture shop Harrods. Stopping to see what was going on he overheard an old lady grumbling,

'I don't see what all the fuss is about, these reality window displays aren't worth the price the pay for them. In my day a mannequin or two was good enough for the common folk but no, now they 'ave to go one better and block the bloody footpath in the process…'

Colin followed her as she cleared a pathway through the crowd with her walking stick until he could see into the shop window. The cause of thedisruption became obvious immediately. Luna Lovegood lay sprawled out on the central window display sofa. Colin was absolutely certain it was her; she had recently become the first legitimate seller of enchanted items to Muggle consumers. It had kicked up quite a fuss in the papers but Colin had thought the commotion overrated, the items were only lightly enchanted and your average Muggle wouldn't know. Still a picture of Luna doing something as stupid as sleeping in a shop window would probably reawaken the press's interest and earn him a big fat bonus from the Quibble's new editor. With one finger on the shutter button he raised the camera to take a picture…and then changed his mind. Sighing he tucked the bag under his arm and strode into the shop.

She could hear the heartbeat of the snorkle beast banging like a fist on glass as she slept;

Pound-pound-pound-BANG.

'Luna'

Oh, it could talk.

'Luna, get up!'

A strong arm pulled her into a sitting position and she was unpleasantly surprised when the snorkle beast's sixty eyes turned into thirty spectators staring at her. (A policeman was now attempting to move them along with the assistance of an old lady waving a walking stick.)

She noticed the person who pulled her up also staring at her and glanced over at him. The camera bag and conveniently posed notebook told her everything she needed to know in a second. Turning she ran towards the display door and, although they couldn't explain it later, the two security guards hastily stood aside to let her through.

Tears flowed down her cheeks as she sprinted down the street. How could she have been so damn dumb? Hadn't her father continually stressed to her the importance of keeping your head low in times such as these? That was before he got ill though… afterwards he hadn't made much sense at all just-

'Luna wait!'

Damn, the guy was following her. Scooting down a side lane she whipped off her cloak and turned it to the (invisibility) laced side. It didn't work as a real invisibility cloak would but it should hide her well enough till the journalist passed by.

The problem was he didn't. Luna almost laughed. Almost. He was real Quibbler material this one.

'Luna?'

His voice echoed along what appeared to be an empty passageway. No other exits, no doors so either she disappearated (which wasn't likely given the recent blanket ban on apparition) or she was still here somewhere, hiding.

The thought of a pay rise spurring him on Colin took out the only contraband item he owned, a magical viewfinder, and pressed it onto his camera. Luna showed up immediately to his left as a half-cloaked shadow. Very slowly, with his arm outstretched, he moved in her direction.

'I'd like to write an interview Miss Lovegood and I swear that's all. Just a few questions about how you persuaded the ministry to allow you to sell magical items on a Muggle street. How and why your relationship with the Muggle Liaison Officer broke up, exactly what kind of items you sell and-'

He was within arms reach now,

'Did the recent death of your father affect your-'

WHAM. One swift movement later and Luna was flying barefooted around the corner, her long hair and skirt whipping out of sight behind her. Collin was left clutching in one hand her cloak and in the other his goolies.

**End chapter One.**

**Coming in 'Chapter Two: In witch Muggles and Magic go very well together.'**

**Colin pays Luna a visit in her shop…**

**AN: As this is my first on-line Harry Potter fanfic, I'd really appreciate hearing what you thought of the characters as older people. I've tried to mature them from fifteen year olds to twenty three year olds without much background to build on. I gave Luna and Colin professions I thought they might follow and I'm assuming for this stories sake that You-know-who is dead but that some of his followers are still out there wreaking havoc in the wizarding world.**

**Also, don't worry I do actually have a plot in mind, this was just the introduction! Thanks for taking the time to read,**

**Galleena.**


	2. Muggles & Magic

**In witch Muggles and Magic go very well together**

Business wasn't quite flourishing in Luna's shop a few weeks later but old customers came back for more and new ones occasionally tagged along with them or ambled in to have a look themselves. Luna was talking intensely to such a customer when she noticed her shop door slid open and close again as the man examined the Healing Crystals Amulets. It wasn't until he had bought a Quartz ring and she had ushered him out of the door (which she then promptly locked) that she reacted at all to the invisible presence.

'Windardium Leviosa' she called, whipping her wand out of its usual place as a hair tie. Luna's Demiguise-pelt lined cloak rose up several feet into the air revealing Colin Creevey looking very taken aback in the middle of her shop. He had obviously not expected to be caught in the act. 'Accio' she called, her wand still levelled at his face. The invisibility cloak flew over to her and she stuffed it behind her onto a shelf. Colin took one look at the murderous look on Luna's usually friendly face and decided it was time to speak.

'Err… Miss Lovegood, I was just about to-'

Luna interrupted 'You were just about to leave my shop and you have five seconds to do so. Five.'

Colin was now looking very worriedly at the wood tip between his eyebrows

'Luna please! This is Colin, you know (Four) from Hogwarts! Moving pictures in first (Three) year, Potter badges in third year (Two) DA-MEETINGS-IN-FOURTH-YEAR-I'M COLIN CREEEVEY!'

'Oh' said Luna, mildly this time 'that Colin'. But the wand still did not budge.

Colin wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead as Luna squinted at him from behind her vibrantly coloured contacts.

'Small boy,' she remarked eventually 'attached to his camera by permanent sticking charm and wasn't as loathsome as most in the year, tried to steal my Gryfindor hat once' She smiled at the memory and her wand lowered slowly to waist height, although neither her arm nor eye relaxed.

'What do you want Colin?'

Colin decide to try a little reporter trick he had observed at the Quibbler's offices. A reporter would pretend to be interested in a product with the 'view to buying something' while recording the conversation for later use in a 'factual' article.

'What do you have?' he replied smoothly 'It's my mother's birthday in a few days and I thought I might pick up a present for her here, seeing as she's a Muggle and all that.'

He paused to see how Luna was swallowing this and gave a sigh of relief when she moved behind her counter and cautiously dropped her wand into a side pocket of her floaty gypsy skirt.

'What were you thinking of getting her?' she asked. Businesslike once more.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Luna had started her business as an illegal stall owner in the local market. The magical items she originally sold were pendants or other sorts of jewellery of her own design. These were snapped up speedily by the local teenage girls in a sort of trend; cheaper than buying in a jewellers, more artistic than the local chemist's supply and as they actually did what she said they did they became very popular. She had Mood-stones which actually showed what mood you were in, 'happy earrings' for when you needed a smile and copper bracelets which promised to keep ill health at bay.

Not that her first customers really believed it all but eventually they came around to the idea that these trinkets were out of the ordinary and told their friends about 'Luna's Lifestones' and where to find her. She had made enough money to rent her premises on Darwin Street and had recently moved into selling more exotically enchanted items…

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

'You can't sell _potions_ to Muggles' said Colin, aghast. So far they had looked at key rings that don't get lost, enhancing eye contacts and pet rocks but at this Luna's face hardened slightly around the brow area.

'I don't' she stated simply.

Colin started to stutter in indignation;

'But you do! Look!' He picked up a tiny round-bottomed flask containing a yellowy liquid '_Luck_1' he said incredulously and picked up some others. '_Joy!_ _Peace of mind! _and_ Love!_ You're telling me that these are _not_ potions?'

Luna's patience was wearing thin. Her pale face seemed sharper than it did in the days Colin knew her and her eyes had lost the day-dream that had always possessed them. She'd grown old Colin realised and then glanced away when she caught him staring at her.

'They're not potions, they're incenses' Luna explained, as though to a child. 'Muggles won't drink them as wizards do but burn them instead. It doesn't work so well as consuming them would but the potion has a slight effect on the person's life for a few hours and then it wears off.'

'And anyway' she added more irritably 'I don't sell them to any old Muggle; that's a hidden cabinet you're looking at.'

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

When Colin reviewed the day later he found he was slightly in awe of Luna. This woman had pushed through legislation to allow her, and only her, express permission to sell lightly enchanted items to Muggles without ever setting foot in the Wizarding High Council. She had set up business on her own with no real financial background to speak of and had even got away with selling stuff she really shouldn't have because she knew who to talk to. Gone was the Luna who wore radishes in her earlobes and corks around her neck. Gone also it would seem was the distressed girl he had met barely a month ago. A newer model had arrived, hardened by loss and toughened by sheer necessity.

In fact he had been so amazed by this new Luna's plausible explanations and justifications of her actions that he had coughed up thirty-five Muggle pounds for a square box set of four potions/incenses and three more for a burner. As an after thought he had also bought a silver happy earring for himself in a manly dragon design after Luna discovered and wiped clean the Muggle tape recorder he had carried in his pocket. He figured he needed the earring; he would have had one hell of a story and salary boost if she hadn't been so good a scourging charms.

Grimacing slightly at the pain in the hand that he had been stupid enough to try stop her burning the recorder with he suddenly grinned. To hell with it, he thought, evidence or no-evidence this kind of story was publishable anyway. Pulling out a fresh sheet of parchment he sat at his desk and began to write. 'Luna's Lifestones' would soon be sorry that she messed with Colin Creevey's goolies…

END Part two.

**Coming in Chapter three: Anger, Revelation and Full-blown Conspiracy Theories.**

**After Colin publishes an article in the Quibbler about her shop Luna is not too pleased with him. She is even less so when he arrives at her flat near midnight to ask her the truth about something she doesn't want to accept.**

**AN: Okay, I know I promised some action in this chapter but as it's only a short one (please don't hex me) and really only a half of the chapter I just wrote I'd appreciate if you'll just bear with me for a few days more till I get my act together and figure out an up-dating system that suits everyone here at home. I'd better go now before my parents get back- shit they're here. Bye and thank you all my reviewers, your reviews have been returned as a mark of my gratitude!**


	3. Exploding Radishes and the Lion

**Exploding radishes.**

When Luna paid the post parrot the two days later she gagged on her milk as she unfurled her copy of the Quibbler. On three-quarters of the front page was a photo of her in all her Hogwarts glory kit. The earrings, the butter beer corks and the loopy eyes all moved sideways slightly to make sure they were staring past the reader into vacant space. Choking back a cry of surprise she hastily scanned the heading and article underneath.

**Looney Lovegood lies to get Muggle-Magic shop license**

**Luna Lovegood of 'Lovegood's Lockets', Darwin Street, is a mad woman. Mad and ambitious; a dangerous combination writes Quibbler correspondent Colin Creevey. She is a woman determined to destroy the peace that has existed between Muggle and Wizard communities since the Middle Ages with her ill-advised and stupidly approved Magic for Muggles high street store. Sleeping her way to the top dog in the ministry in order to get the go ahead for a licence, she now sells items such as Love potion, Cheering charmed earrings and bewitched key rings. We, at the Quibbler, wonder how far she will go before the ministry see fit to close her down and throw her in Azkaban. After all, what's next on her agenda? Murdering spoons perhaps… Strangling necklaces perchance…Or maybe she'll turn to stocking more potions as a dead giveaway to our existence.**

**Lovegood, or 'Looney' as her apt nickname goes, was known in her school days for being odd. Although we have nothing against odd people (Uric the Oddball was one of our best journalists) we fear that several influencing factors may have destroyed her sanity for once and for all. She refused to comment on her eccentric ways but threatened to stick Creevey's camera to him with a 'permanent sticking charm' if he didn't leave the shop in 'under five seconds'. Later we met her uncomfortable looking ex-lover John Bloc (Minister for Muggle Affairs) and asked him why, exactly, he signed the permission slip to allow such a calamity occur;**

'**I (loved) her'**

**For further details about Looney's sordid love affair with John Bloc's junior minister turn to page 2.**

**If you want to know more about Luna's loopy shop see page 6.**

'**_You should feel sorry for Luna, she's mad and always has been'_ Columnist Lavender Brown gives the goss on Lovegood's schooldays. Pg 12**

**To read about Luna's family's alleged links with anti-ministry reformers please buy _Quibbler on Sunday, the real story._**

Luna felt the corners of her eyes pricking but told herself not to cry. It was only the Quibbler, just the stupid Quibbler. Everyone knew they printed rubbish anyway and no-one would believe it.

Somehow this made her feel even worse. Almost like she was denying her heritage in admitting that her Father's newspaper was a rag. Her daddy would never have let- but that brought back painful memories and a fresh wave of distress swept over her face. Turning and throwing the Quibbler angrily aside she left her breakfast dishes sitting on the table and ran upstairs to her room. Colin! It was Colin Creevey who had done this to her. He had pulled the oldest reporting trick in the book and she had fallen for it hook, line and sinker! Snarling she picked up her pillow and flung it across the room. Present for his Mother her ass; guys like Colin didn't have mothers.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Colin was at that moment yelling at the editor of the Quibbler;

'I never wrote any of this! Sleeping her way to the top…stocking strangling necklaces?.. How did you come up with this shit?'

Charles Lion, a sleek-haired, well-built former ministry employee was gazing passively over his fingertips at the livid Colin. When he replied it was in a peaceful voice, however it was a tone that brokered no argument.

'I write this 'shit' because it sells papers, Mr.Creevey. And you provided the article, we just elaborated and improved it. Believe me' he chuckled drolly 'it needed it; such substandard journalism would usually be cut out completely. But it had the makings of a good story and so we _enhanced_ its finer qualities'

Colin opened his mouth to argue further but Lion silenced him with a wave of his hand and continued.

'Mr.Creevey I am sure you are aware that my predecessor and I had our differences over the way this paper was run. Firstly, he printed the most ridiculous stories that no-body wanted to read. Secondly, he put no effort into selling the paper just let the numbers fall and fall as his stories became more and more ludicrous. Thirdly, he didn't pay his writers any decent amount of gold so they all went to the Daily Prophet instead. But that's all changing now; The Quibbler is reaching a new era and going up-market to do so. If that involves dragging our ex-editor's daughter down off cloud nine in the process then so be it. I never liked the brat anyway and this is the kind of story that flies off shelves.'

Here he paused 'I'm assigning you lead reporter in this story as it was originally your idea. I expect you to work in tandem with my journalists to further the tale for tomorrow's edition. Oh, and a small bonus is in order I think'.

He pushed a small bag of galleons across the table 'Good day Mr. Creevey'. Colin couldn't bring himself to leave the gold there. Damn it! Where was his moral strength and courage when he needed it? Tucking the moneybag into his pocket he left the office in silence but not before he saw the small smirk on Charles Lion's face.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Luna felt herself lose control. It hadn't happened in years but her anger at herself built up to exploding point and furrowed deep grooves through the sensible part of her brain. She felt herself hyperventilating, and in the darkness heard the pounding hooves of Thestrals taking over her chest as the rug of her bedroom floor rose to meet her.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Colin was pissed off. He had been sending owls to Luna all day, growing more and more frustrated as each letter returned un-opened. Even the howler came back intact. Then, after a photographer on the case came back to report that Luna's shop was locked and her flat windows bolted he began to feel niggling concern. He hadn't really thought about what slandering her shop might do to her. In fact he was so concerned by the end of the day that he decided to pay her a visit personally, though he'd wait until after nightfall so as not to be spotted.

It was so dark when he had arrived on Darwin Street that even the yellowy lamp overhead wasn't illuminating much around it. The air was too cold for a summer night and the surrounding area too quiet for Colin's liking. He tried ringing the bell and then knocking on the window but to no avail. Looking around cautiously he sent his patronus discreetly under the door but still nothing happened. Eventually he tried Alohamora and the door opened smoothly revealing a set of stairs. Still not convinced that these wouldn't be burglar trapped he skipped the third step, the seventh step and then the twenty-first step just to be sure. As he approached the landing and second door he froze. Someone was moaning from behind the wall to his right. Speeding up to open the door he found this one to be jinx-proofed and kicked it in annoyance. The door swung open creakily and Colin, surprised, stepped inside.

A high pitched scream came from a door to his right and he barged into it, totally unprepared for what he might find inside. Luna Lovegood lay sprawled in the murky gloom of her bedroom, twitching and kicking as though fighting off some unseen force. Colin suddenly understood the darkness in the surrounding streets; Luna was emanating it in pain or despair. As he watched in shock from the doorway she rolled over arching her back in pain and lay motionless on her side. He thought she was dead. Then she moaned, 'Stop it, please stop it, please…' and started thrashing wildly again. Springing into action he lit a fire in her Muggle grate and summoned a healer from St. Mungos. Mercifully Luna had seen fit to attach her fireplace to the floo network making this possible but Colin wasn't sure how the healer was going to get out the other end. In the meantime he had been instructed not to touch Luna in case whatever was wrong was contagious by contact but he laid a hand on her arm anyway and was distressed by the deathly cold he felt.

It scared him. He, a Gryfindor, was terrified by the raw power he felt coming from the woman before him with her deathly pale face and rolling eyes. When the healers arrived by apparition and carried her away he was only too glad to go home again and curl up in his dark room with the red developing light on to try sleep but he couldn't rest. Every time he closed his eyes her eerily-beautiful, terrified face haunted him from behind the lids of shut blinds and broken doorways.

END Part three

**AN: I know this isn't quite what I promised at the end of the last chapter but when I read over the second half of the part I wrote it was too sudden. It will perhaps come as a later chapter or maybe a sequel. I think this story works well where it ends now, what do you think?**

**All reviews have, I believe, been returned so far. Thank you for your encouraging comments and if you don't like this story then you may prefer to read my one about the Weasleys. I owe Mandy my reviewer (and fellow neopeter!) a virtual muffin for telling me what sort of animal invisibility cloaks are woven from (Demiguise hair) and I apologise to all people reading this for any inconvenience or horror that this sudden ending may or may not cause.**

**Thanks again,**

**Galleena**


End file.
